‘Christmas is about the people you’re with’
With new festive film Your Christmas or Mine 2 now on Prime Video, stars Asa Butterfield and Cora Kirk tell Rachael Davis what’s in store for James and Hayley
There’s not much more festive than a Christmas rom-com. Last Christmas, we all fell in love with Hayley and James in Your Christmas or Mine?, with Sex Education’s Asa Butterfield and newcomer Cora Kirk in leading roles.
This year, following on from the culture-clash storyline which saw working class Hayley spend Christmas with James’s aristocratic family, while James stayed at Hayley’s Macclesfield home when a mutual surprise visit went topsy turvy, mayhem abounds when the two extended families decide to spend Christmas in the Alps.
Your Christmas or Mine 2 is a comedy of errors full of mishap and miscommunication. First, a taxi mix-up sees the wealthy Hughes family end up staying in the dodgy hotel Hayley’s dad managed to book on the cheap, while Hayley and the Taylors live it up in the Hughes’ five star ski resort. But then, Hayley finds an engagement ring in the Hughes’ misdelivered luggage, and jumps to conclusions…
The bringing together of the two families means a stellar ensemble cast for this sequel, including Angela Griffin as Hayley’s mum Kath, Daniel Mays as her dad Geoff, David Bradley as James’ granddad, Alex Jennings as his dad Humphrey, and Jane Krakowski as Humphrey’s girlfriend.
“It was wild! And it was hysterical at times,” says Butterfield, who plays Otis Milburn in popular Netflix series Sex Education, of having the Hugheses and Taylors together in the sequel.
“It’s always tricky when you’ve got that many people, and that many stories and characters’ arcs to fit in and write around each other. But Tom (Parry, writer)’s a genius, and managed to give everyone their moment and give everyone their scenes where you can really see where they fit into this huge, complicated dynamic.
“And it was just so much fun. We spent a lot of time laughing – probably more time than they’d have hoped! Some scenes took a long time because of how much fun we were having.”
“We had such a good time filming it because we were in Austria this time,” agrees Kirk. “It actually felt like a family holiday because we stayed in the hotel that we filmed in.”
Butterfield explains that the cast and crew were near the Austrian town of Innsbruck, in the Alps, for three weeks of fun in the snow.
“We shot from April to May, right at the end of the ski season, so a lot of the skiers had gone – but there was still some snow there,” says the 26-year-old star.
“We were kind of pushed for time, because every day there’d be a little bit less snow, and a little bit less snow, so we’d have to be quite clever about the angles that we shot at and make sure we had snow in the background, or shovel snow from this part and put it on the other side. But we did it!
“And for once we actually didn’t have to act that we were cold, we genuinely were cold!”
“It was freezing!” Kirk agrees. “And we had an incredible crew around us that really helped with the conditions, icy conditions were against us. I really didn’t think it was going to be cold, I’m clearly an idiot…
“It was an incredible experience. And we had an incredible team around us that made it happen. I sound like we just filmed like, SAS: Your Christmas or Mine 2! It wasn’t like that, but it came close.”
Of course, it’s a ski holiday, so we do see James and Hayley get into some salopettes and attempt some action on the slopes.
While Kirk admits she can’t ski – much like Hayley – Butterfield says he found it hard to resist the temptation to have a go in between takes.
“I did sneak off, now and then – just a little bit down the slope, when no-one was looking,” he reveals.
“You’re at the top of a ski slope, with skis on in the most beautiful place! But it was mostly our stunt doubles making us look like way better skiers, making me look like a better skier than I am.”
Amongst all the drama, warmth, heartbreak and laughs of the rom-com is the pertinent culture clash storyline, delving into themes of class divide and making relationships work when one person comes from wealth and the other doesn’t.
“I think the money struggle is something everyone can relate to, especially in the climate we’re in at the moment,” says Kirk. “And it was, I think, quite nice to be able to show that realistically on screen.
“Actually, when it comes down to it, the core message of the film isn’t their vast difference in wealth, it’s actually how family and love and communicating can actually push through that.
“Because there is always that fear of competition, and especially at Christmas, that you want to do your best, and sometimes that is a money thing. But actually in this, you see it isn’t about that – it’s about them coming together as people, our families coming together as people, and figuring it out.”
Kirk says the ingredients that make Your Christmas or Mine 2 the ideal festive romantic comedy are its “Britishness – an amazing quirk that we’ve managed to keep from the last one and add to this one, like: boys to the pub, girls have a pamper”, as well as the “family holiday, presents, pudding, family arguments, and all that stuff.”
“Just the really familiar warmth of Christmas,” Butterfield agrees.
“And the togetherness of these family units… At the end of the day, that’s what Christmas is about. It’s about the people you’re with, rather than where you are, necessarily.”
It actually felt like a family holiday because we stayed in the hotel that we filmed in